Almond Rice Pilaf

We all have our go to side dish. The one you know how to make perfectly each time and it compliments almost any type of meat. My favorite side to any meat is potatoes. Fried. Baked. Grilled. Boiled. Mashed. You name the spud and I will eat it. Well wait… I don’t like scalloped potatoes. Not sure why, but they give me the heebie- jeebies. Yuck.

Every once and a while I like to throw rice in the mix, to change things up. Normally, I just grab a couple cups of rice and throw it in the rice cooker with water. Presto, instant side dish. A bland one, but a side dish none the less.

When rice pilaf, I mean a good rice pilaf, not the kind you get ladled onto your plate from a cafeteria, but a delicious rice pilaf entered my life, I was in love. I wanted to make this every night of the week! I might have made it twice in one week once, and ate it for lunch leftover a few more times that week too.

The craziest thing about my new obsession…. it’s only 5 ingredients and super easy.

I know, I know, you are thinking- “she uses the word ‘easy’ too loosely”. Believe me. Anyone can make this recipe. It is simpler than making boxed mac and cheese! Oh yeah, that easy!

I DARE you.

Double. No. Triple dog DARE you.

I am going to compare this recipe to making mac and cheese just to show you. You know the ‘putting water up to boil’ part? That is the ‘putting the onions, butter and almonds in a sauce pan’ part. Let cook for 5 minutes. Stir maybe once a minute. That isn’t too much really. This takes less time than it would for the water to boil.

Add in the rice. Roll it around the pan for 1 minute. Just like pouring the noodles in to the boiling water. Simple.

Last step. Almost there. Pour in the broth. Cover and let cook for 20 minutes. This is the part where I will diverge from the mac and cheese comparison, because lets be real, in that example you don’t have to wait the 20 minutes to eat. However, I think I have proven my point. EASY.

The 20 minutes will fly by in a blink of an eye. One bite of this rice, and you will say “She wasn’t kidding.”

You know a triple dog dare must be carried out, that is what makes it the ultimate of the ultimate dares.